White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said Sunday that President Trump remains committed to fighting the nation’s opioid crisis and that “nothing is finalized” regarding a proposal to gut the budget of the White House’s “drug czar.” “I would always tell people, judge President Trump by his actions, not leaked documents and hypotheticals,” Priebus […]

President Trump on Sunday took to Twitter to congratulate Emmanuel Macron for winning France’s presidential election, giving a nod to a centrist who didn’t seem to have been his preferred candidate. “Congratulations to Emmanuel Macron on his big win today as the next President of France,” Trump said in his tweet. “I look very much […]

Ismail Haniya elected new Hamas leaderCNNJerusalem (CNN) A longtime senior Hamas official was elected Saturday to replace the Palestinian militant group's outgoing head, Khaled Meshaal, an official in Meshaal's office told CNN. Hamas' Shura Council chose Ismail Haniya to become the new leader ...and more »

Centrist former economy minister Emmanuel Macron has been leading in polls over the anti-E.U. firebrand Marine Le Pen, but voting has so far been sluggish compared with previous presidential elections.

In a race dominated by the issues of jobs, immigration and security, the choice before voters in this second and final round Sunday is stark, with centrist, pro-EU former economy minister, Emmanuel Macron facing nationalist, anti-immigration crusader Marine Le Pen.

Heavy fighting is raging in northern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency has overrun several districts since launching its so-called yearly “spring offensive” more than a week ago. The battlefield advances have again brought insurgents close enough to threaten Kunduz, the strategically important city the Taliban had briefly captured in 2015. Officials told local media Sunday that Afghan forces were battling the insurgents in Charkhab area on the outskirts of the provincial capital. The fighting has effectively blocked the main highway linking Kunduz to the conflict-hit Khan Abad district and to the northern Takhar province. Afghan security officials say army operations to reopen the highway are underway and have killed dozens of Taliban fighters. On Saturday, the Taliban captured nearby Qala-e-Zal district after staging a multi-prong offensive on the area that borders the former Soviet Central Asian state of Tajikistan. Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri, however, insisted government forces staged a “tactical” withdrawal to protect civilians and surrounding areas. He claimed a counteroffensive to retake Qala-e-Zal is underway. But a Taliban spokesman dismissed official claims Sunday, saying there was no fighting in the district, the insurgent group was in full control, and life is returning to normalcy there. There are no casualty details available from either side. US drone attack Meanwhile, a U.S. drone attack in the eastern province of Nangarhar has killed at least 27 Islamic State militants and wounded 13 others. A provincial government spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani, told VOA on Sunday the strike occurred in the mountainous Achin district. Fighting has also been raging for days in the northeastern Badkhashan province where Taliban insurgents are said to be consolidating their hold on the recently captured Zebak district and staging attacks on nearby districts. Possible spillover effects of the Afghan conflict has been a cause of concern for neighboring Central Asian states because some of them are already struggling to tackle domestic Islamist extremists. In a bid to allay those fears, the Taliban reiterated Sunday its combat mission is solely directed against Afghanistan’s “foreign occupiers and their internal allies”, an apparent reference to the U.S.-led NATO military mission and the Afghan government. “We have no intention of meddling in others’ affairs and nor will we allow others to interfere in our internal affairs,” a statement quoted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid as reassuring Afghanistan’s neighboring countries. “However, the liberation of our land from foreign occupation and the establishment of an Afghan-inclusive government is our natural right and we will continue our struggle until we have achieved this goal,” Mujahid added. Afghan authorities maintain militants from Central Asian states have been spotted in Taliban ranks in recent months while U.S. military commanders allege Russia is also arming the insurgents. Moscow denies the charges as groundless and as an attempt by the U.S.-led military mission to place blame for failing to stabilize the war-shattered country. Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Waziri has also accused neighboring Pakistan of helping the Taliban, charges Islamabad rejects. In its report for the first quarter of 2017, the U.S. Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR noted the government controlled nearly 60 percent of 407 Afghan districts, but 11.1 percent or 45 districts were under insurgent control on influence. The rest of the area is contested, the government watch dog said, quoting the U.S. military assessment prior to the Taliban spring offensive on April 28.

Former Israeli combat soldiers who were thrust into the center of a recent diplomatic row between Israel and Germany, say the sudden international spotlight has given them a bigger stage to speak out against Israel's 50-year rule over millions of Palestinians. Breaking the Silence is a group of ex-soldiers-turned-whistleblowers who view Israel's open-ended occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state as an existential threat to their country. Since 2004, the group has collected testimony from more than 1,100 fellow soldiers who describe the dark side of that rule, including seemingly routine mistreatment of Palestinian civilians stripped of basic rights. The veterans hope such accounts by former fighters will carry weight and spark public debate about the moral price of the occupation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top officials in his nationalist government have a starkly different view. They have branded Breaking the Silence as foreign-funded subversives who are trying to defame Israel and its military. Most recently, Netanyahu even seemed willing to rattle Israel's relationship with key European ally Germany to score points against Breaking the Silence, which has 16 paid staffers, several dozen volunteers and an annual budget of about $2 million. Two weeks ago, he said he would not receive German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel if the visitor stuck to plans to meet with Breaking the Silence. Gabriel chose the soldiers instead. Netanyahu, who also serves as foreign minister, said that shunning visitors who meet with Breaking the Silence is now official policy. The fallout continues this week. The dispute has cast a shadow over what would otherwise have been a routine Israel visit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Media reports suggest Steinmeier will praise the group during a speech Sunday, but not meet with its representatives to avoid another spat with Netanyahu. Yehuda Shaul, a co-founder of Breaking the Silence, said the recent attention has been a mixed blessing. The focus on the diplomatic dust-up "diverts a lot of attention from the real issue, what goes on in the occupied territories," he said in an interview at the group's office, tucked away in an old walk-up in a grubby industrial area of Tel Aviv. "On the other hand, it gives us more stages to speak about it," said Shaul, citing more media attention and public speaking invitations that draw larger audiences. Israelis have been bitterly divided over what to do with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands they captured in June 1967. Israel annexed east Jerusalem immediately after the war and retains overall control over the West Bank, with enclaves of Palestinian self-rule. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and has enforced a border blockade of the territory since it was seized by the Islamic militant Hamas two years later. Many Israelis support the idea of Palestinian statehood in principle, but believe it's not safe to cede war-won territories now. Fears were stoked by three Israel-Hamas wars since 2008 and an escalation of regional conflicts. Meanwhile, partition is increasingly difficult, with 600,000 Israelis already living on occupied lands and settlements expanding steadily. Netanyahu has said he is willing to resume partition talks with the Palestinians, but gaps remain wide. A majority of his Cabinet ministers oppose a two-state solution and some even call for annexing parts of the West Bank, raising fears among some Israelis that their rule over disenfranchised Palestinians will become permanent. Shaul said he and his comrades are the true patriots, not those clinging to occupied territories. "I believe Jews have a right to self-determination in the Holy Land. But I refuse to accept that the only way I will be allowed to implement my right to self-determination is if I strip my neighbors, the Palestinians, of the exact same right I demand for myself," he said. "A permanent occupation is the most anti-Zionist position one can ever have because it says we are doomed to live in a sin." The beginnings of Breaking the Silence go back to Hebron, the West Bank's largest Palestinian city, where hundreds of troops guard roughly the same number of Jewish settlers in an Israeli-controlled center partly off limits to Palestinians. Shaul, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home, spent more than a year of his compulsory three-year army service in Hebron at the height of an armed Palestinian uprising of bombings and shootings that erupted in 2000. He became increasingly disillusioned with his army mission, which he felt was largely aimed at making Palestinians fear him and his comrades. He said that while his parents and grandparents fought against armies to defend Israel, "the stories I can tell you about is breaking into houses in the middle of the night to intimidate people and seeing children crying and peeing in their pants.'' In 2004, Shaul and dozens of members from his unit presented a photo exhibit about Hebron in Tel Aviv. Since then, the group has collected recorded testimony from hundreds of soldiers, including those who fought in recent Israel-Hamas wars. Some of the soldiers described an atmosphere in which the mission and safety of the troops trumped other considerations, such as the lives and property of Palestinians. More than 100 soldiers have gone on the record, while the rest remain anonymous, for fear of repercussions, but are known to the group's researchers who check their stories, Shaul said. The research department was able to flag four false testimonies by right-wing activists trying to undermine the group's credibility, he said. All material is submitted to the military censor before publication to avoid inadvertent harm to Israel's security, he added. Critics allege that the group is hiding behind anonymous testimony to smear Israel soldiers and help Israel's enemies press future war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court. They say the group, which does not call for a boycott of Israel, nonetheless feeds into what many Israelis believe is a global trend of unfairly singling out and delegitimizing Israel. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely recently said her office is urging European countries to stop funding what she called "anti-Israel organizations," including Breaking the Silence. "We will ask our friends in the world to respect this red line and to stop contributing to this organization,'" she said. Some of the group's defenders in Israel said they believe it and other anti-occupation organizations are being targeted in an escalating government assault on Israel's civil society. Amos Oz, Israel's most famous living author, has said the ex-soldiers play a critical role in Israel's society, comparing them to biblical prophets who spoke uncomfortable truths. "Moral impulse is a matter of utmost existential importance," Oz said in a November speech that media reports said would be cited by the German president.

Organizers barred journalists on Sunday from a publicly advertised event in Shanghai to attract Chinese investment in a U.S. real estate project linked to the family of President Donald Trump's son-in-law in exchange for immigrant visas. The two-tower luxury apartment complex in New Jersey, One Journal Square, is being developed by KABR Group and the Kushner Companies, which until recently was headed by senior White House advisor Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump's daughter Ivanka. The developers are seeking to raise $150 million, or 15.4 percent of funding for the project, from investors through the EB-5 visa program, according to marketing materials posted by the event's organizer, immigration agency Qiaowai. The controversial EB-5 program allows wealthy foreigners to, in effect, buy U.S. immigration visas for themselves and families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects. "Sorry, this is a private event," said a man stopping journalists from entering a function room on Sunday afternoon at the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai. Guests at the event said Kushner's sister, Nicole Kushner Meyer, spoke for about 10 minutes, including about her family's humble roots. According to the New York Times, Meyer attended a similar event in Beijing on Saturday and told the audience of about 100 people the project "means a lot to me and my entire family". Jared Kushner, whose White House portfolio includes relations with China, sold his stake in Kushner Companies to a family trust early this year. His lawyer said in a statement in March that Kushner was fully complying with ethics rules, removing himself from active participation in his prior businesses and divesting assets. A Kushner Companies spokeswoman declined to comment in a New York Times article about the Beijing event published on Saturday. The Times story said Meyer did not respond when asked if she was concerned about possible conflicts of interest facing her brother. Journalists from the Times and Washington Post were removed from Saturday's Beijing event, the newspapers reported. Popular with wealthy Chinese One potential investor, Sophie Xing, said a "very important" factor in her decision to attend Sunday's event was the fact that the project was a Kushner Companies investment and that Trump's son-in-law's sister would be showing up in Shanghai. "Actually I really don't know how close they are but I felt that this was a pretty good project," she said. In a promotional text message seen by Reuters, Qiaowai made note of Meyer's relationship to Trump and called her the event's "heavyweight honored guest". Qiaowei representatives at the event declined to answer questions from journalists, and calls to its listed phone number went unanswered. Qiaowei is also known as QWOS. Its promotional materials for the project, which it also calls Kushner1, advertise the prospect of putting money in under the federal EB-5 program. The program is popular among wealthy Chinese looking to shift assets abroad or move overseas, but it has come under fire in the United States. Some U.S. lawmakers have called for changing or abolishing the EB-5 program, but the scheme was recently renewed by Congress until Sept. 30. Potential investor Xing said a Kushner representative who spoke on Sunday stressed that EB-5 rules could change after September to raise the minimum required investment. Another person who attended Sunday's event, Liu Guoqi, was mindful of the potential rule change. Liu said he had been to previous pitches for EB-5 investments but had concerns about the risks. "The whole thing may change later this year so we feel that there isn't much time left," he said. In the United States, the EB-5 program has also sparked concerns about possible scams. Some immigrants have been burned by misrepresentations made about the program by promoters, both inside and outside the United States. Many have lost not only their money but their chance at winning U.S. citizenship. Trump has vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration. In addition to Beijing and Shanghai, the road show for One Journal Square was scheduled to hit the Chinese cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Wuhan, according to Qiaowai's marketing materials online. It calls the Kushner family a "famous real estate clan", and touts EB-5 immigration as "peace of mind". Qiaowai's Chinese-language marketing material describes the project as "supported by the government, created by a star developer", and says the project is its 87th EB-5 !!br0ken!!

Emmanuel Macron gives victory speech vowing to unite France video
French president-elect says in his victory speech that he understands the divisions within France and that he respects them. Macron vows to unite the country with a renewed sense of optimism and expresses his gratitude for the confidence the French people have placed in him

WATCH: Comey admits FBI investigating leaks to Giuliani and Trump team
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey told senators that he is very, very interested in the possibility that members of the bureau leaked documents about Hillary Clintons private email server investigation to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giulia...

Outside Donald Trump's offices, pigs will flyThe indy100 (satire)Sometimes it's had to block out hearing or seeing Donald Trump's name, with him being the president of the US and all. But how about with gold helium balloon pigs? Four of them will soon be floating outside Trump's tower in Chicago, right over that ...and more »

The Arctic: Source of Conflict or Cooperation?
At a time of heightened geopolitical tension, this weeks meeting of the Arctic Council in Fairbanks, Alaska, carries extra significance. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, are due to attend. An unspoken objective is to ensure tensions elsewhere dont spill over into the Arctic.

Donald Trump's highly abnormal presidency: a running guide for MayVICE NewsWhen President Donald Trump invited leaders of historically black colleges and universities to the Oval Office in February to show his commitment to the schools with an executive order, he said that funding would be an absolute priority for this White ...

Israel moves to downgrade status of Arabic languageYahoo NewsJerusalem (AFP) - Israeli ministers approved a controversial bill on Sunday that would define the country as the "national home of the Jewish people" while downgrading Arabic as an official language, officials and reports said. If the bill eventually ...and more »

Analysis: Despite Le Pen's loss, European populism lives on
PARIS (AP) -- It&apos;s a triple-whammy. The last six months have seen three European elections and three defeats for far-right populists. The tempting conclusion is that populism&apos;s destructive ability to dismantle old worlds without having credible blueprints for building new ones has been contained for now - at least in western Europe....

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces faced stiff resistance from Islamic State in northwest Mosul on Sunday after opening a new front against the militants there in a push to rout them from the city after seven months of fighting.

Stephen Fry posed the question in response to a question on religion from Gay Byrne during a 2015 interview on RTÉs The Meaning of Life. Police in Ireland are now investigating a complaint of blasphemy regarding Frys comments

Why Emmanuel Macron is the anti-Donald TrumpCNNPresident Donald Trump has praised Le Pen's populism and views on immigration but has not endorsed her. I reached out to CNN Paris correspondent Melissa Bell for her perspective on today's vote and what it means for France -- and the United States.

Communist-ruled Cuba hosts first transgender Mass
MATANZAS, Cuba (Reuters) - For decades belonging to a religion and being anything but heterosexual was stigmatized in Communist-ruled, macho Cuba, making the Mass held by three transgender pastors in the western Cuban city of Matanzas all the more groundbreaking.

How the Republican right found allies in RussiaColumbia Daily TribuneGrowing up in the 1980s, Brian Brown was taught to think of the communist Soviet Union as a dark and evil place. But Brown, a leading anti-gay-marriage activist, said that in the past few years he has started meeting Russians at conferences on family ...and more »

Condoleezza Rice on Russia, Putin and TrumpCBS NewsThis morning Jane Pauley has questions for, and answers from, Condoleezza Rice, a first-hand eyewitness to huge changes overseas and here at home: Her eight years in the White House, as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, were perhaps ...and more »

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) -- As lab technicians analyzed a DNA sample from a New York man following a small-time criminal conviction, they discovered the sort of tantalizing clue officials hoped for when New York became the first state to begin collecting DNA from every person convicted of any crime....

One reason more software engineers are heading to Toronto: TrumpCNBCThe Trump administration's recent battles over immigration have made some people feel unwelcome, and others more hesitant to move to the U.S. to do research in artificial intelligence. "People have been emailing and calling to ask: When can I send my ...

Workers at the Río Piedras terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico, face waning business. Transportation businesses have been hurt by the economic crisis as drivers have to wait hours to fill a trip for their routes.

French cybersecurity agency probing Macron hackThe HillFrance's government cybersecurity agency will reportedly investigate a large-scale hacking operation that targeted presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign days before the Sunday election. A government official told The Associated Press that ...and more »

Israel-Germany row shines spotlight on anti-occupation group
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Former Israeli combat soldiers who were thrust into the center of a recent diplomatic row between Israel and Germany, say the sudden international spotlight has given them a bigger stage to speak out against Israel&apos;s 50-year rule over millions of Palestinians....

Trump Administration Has Now Crossed Over...To The Twilight ZoneForbesWhat the Trump administration did last week on the federal budget was so astoundingly bizarre that it would have been a great plot for an episode of The Twilight Zone if that show were still on the air. For those of you who are too young to remember ...

Who is the new French president, Emmanuel Macron? video
The new French president-elect was little known abroad until recently, having never before been elected to public office. Born in 1977, the former investment banker is backed by a new political movement, En Marche! (On the Move), that he set up just a year ago. A former member of outgoing President Hollandes Socialist party, he has been compared to Tony Blair. But what else do we know about him?Continue reading...

Reviews

Reviews

The statistical effects of the October 28 Letter | Federal Bureau of Investigation - NYT

"Many good questions could and should al-zo be asked when Mr. Comey testifies in the closed session of the House Intelligence Committee next week... Comey's overall "motivations" might be complex and and at the same time simple: the security of the country. The details of these complexities are not easy to read..." - by Michael Novakhov - 4.25.17

Gangs, Intelligence Services, and Politics

M.N.: It would be unforgivably naive to suppose that the U.S. criminal Underworld is not controlled these days by the Russian Mafia, and, in turn, by the Russian Intelligence Services. It would also be unforgivably naive to suppose that there are no messages contained in the various criminal acts, and that there are no connections between the Underworld's recent operations and the present situation in the U.S., including the present investigations. As a matter of facts and the investigative leads, they might hold and provide the most easily accessible clues. Attention, the FBI and the significant others: do access these clues.

Smoke and Fire: The Trumputkins, the Trumpumpkins, "The Tillerson Ultimatum", and bad, bad Assad

By Michael Novakhov: So, the Trump - Putin mysterious marriage is on the rocks... The unresolved issues, whatever, whoever, and however triggers the attention to them and their discussions, have to be resolved: soundly, timely, fundamentally, and the long-term; otherwise they come back and accumulate, and together with the other unresolved issues, snowball and cause the avalanches. Nobody needs this mess, enough snow jobs everywhere... That's what Mishustin thinks...

"If you really want to fight ISIS, look into its origins and essence first." - Fight Against "ISIS"

In the opinion of the great many observers, those "sham" groups are nothing more than the creations and proxies of the Russian Military Intelligence (GRU), formed on the basis of the coalitions of the disaffected ex- Baathist Saddam's military (and first of all, military intelligence officers, historically tied with the GRU), with the "rebels-for-hire", and the Assad's Syrian Intelligence Services, which are also the proxies of the GRU.

"Trumpism" as the "social-political experiment" and the "Gang of Four"

The engineered election of Donald Trump as the U.S. President is the joint operation of the German, Russian, and Israeli Intelligence Services with the major executive and operational role played by the Russian-Jewish Mafia at the head of the International Organized Crime - by Michael Novakhov

Tillerson's Complaint:

"Lavrov won't dance with me..."

Lavrov's Response:

"My mama done tol' me... A man's a two-face..."

Vovchick "The Tarantula", why were you so "loud"?!

For Russia (or any other state), this extraordinary, unusual, demonstrative, primitive, blatant "loudness" was like digging her own grave with regard to the US - Russian relations, especially at the time when their improvement and the relief of sanctions is so desired by them, and no doubts, they would understand this very well. This peculiarity in this affair points to the possible deliberate set-up from the third party... The US - Russia - Germany triangle and the role of the revived German intelligence in it after the WW2 have to be examined under the most powerful microscope, in all their hidden details, and in the historical perspective.

Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review

Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks

Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks

Howl!

The America of my dreams: Shattered. Raped.

The King Trump - by Michael Novakhov

The public prayers for His Majesty's health, wealth, and well-being, and also for the development of his additional intellectual capacities should be held no less than three times a day in all public squares, government offices, courthouses, and the places of worship, and also in all the private and public toilets, with the benefit of generating the taxable and multiple extra-flushes. Hopefully, it will flush out in due time.

The Information Age

All the relevant information at your fingertips: Information is not a commodity for sale but one of the most vital and important inalienable rights. To paraphrase Descartes: "I have access to information therefore I am". ("Information Age" - post of 11.30-21.13 | Image from: Information - Google Images)